Automatic swimming pool cleaners of the type that move about the underwater surfaces of a swimming pool are driven by many different kinds of systems. A variety of different pool cleaner drive devices in one way or another harness the flow of water, as it is drawn through (or in some cases pushed through) the pool cleaner (by the pumping action of a remote pump) for debris collection purposes, to create forward pool cleaner movement. One kind of system often used for this purpose is turbines, which translate water movement into the turning of drive wheels.
Various turbine-driven automatic pool cleaners have been made and used, or at least disclosed in the prior art. However, turbine-driven automatic pool cleaners of the prior art have a number of problems and shortcomings. This invention is directed toward overcoming such problems and shortcomings, and to providing a substantially improved turbine-driven automatic pool cleaner.
The turbines of automatic pool cleaners involve securing locomotion power from debris-laden water, because pool cleaners by nature are involved with seeking to remove debris from the water. Indeed, large pieces of debris are occasionally sucked into the turbine chamber and of a pool cleaner turbine, and this obstructs the operation of the device. Because of this problem, turbine-driven automatic pool cleaners typically sought to accommodate the debris by providing some spacing between the tips (distal ends) of turbine vanes and the walls of turbine chambers. This approach is problematic because it involves a loss of power, in a situation in which the amount of hydraulic power provided (by a remote pump) is often already limited.
While some improvements have been made in recent years in turbine-driven automatic pool cleaners of various kinds, adequate solutions to the on-going conflict between the twin concerns of loss of power and risk of clogging have not been forthcoming, particularly in situations in which debris-laden water flows through the turbine. Furthermore, there has been a need for an improved turbine-driven automatic pool cleaner, and a particular need for improvements which allow turbine-driven pool cleaners of both the suction type and the pressure type.